‘V’ Season 2 Finale Review & Discussion

Following what many consider to be a poor execution of its second season, V finally attempted to breathe new life into this problematic series with a surprisingly shocking second season finale. Unfortunately, this move towards episodic redemption falls within the familiar bounds of too little, too late.

For all intents and purposes, the V season 2 finale was captivating, suspenseful and, at times, enjoyable. If separated from the contrived storylines that made up the series’ sophomore year, the second season finale may have been the refreshing change that fans were hoping for earlier in the series.

While still riddled with many of the problems that have been cited as to V‘s downfall, the finale provided on some level, a new aggressive methodology that allowed fans to see that there was in fact, intentions by the producers to remedy much of V’s weak storylines, poor performances and awkward dialogue. One cannot simply place a proverbial bubble around the second season finale and not reflect upon its contradictory nature in regard to the episodes that came before it.

For most of its second season, V was focused on progressing the illogical sub-plot of extracting the human soul. Even within the world of sci-fi, this elemental absurdity proved itself to be the red herring to those watching that something was amiss with the execution of the series.

Taking an alien race that is more advanced than humans and exploring their ignorance in relation to humanity as a whole is an intriguing notion, but when one decides to follow a plotline that has no logical conclusion, it proves to alienate your core audience.

When it was revealed that Anna could use her “bliss” on humans, the poorly realized soul-extraction plot was effectively dead. For the purpose of attempting to progress the overall series storyline forward, this move was a success. For those who invested hours in watching such a meaningless addition, there’s no other way to describe their time commitment than to say it was a waste.

To the credit of those behind the series, one could see that their attempt with the V season 2 finale was to make one last attempt at saving their struggling series. With the deaths and disappearances of a majority of the show’s cast in the episode’s final moments, they not only emphasized to the audience that they can deliver dramatic storylines , but they also showed ABC that if V were to continue for another season, the production budget of the series would be dramatically cut. (Fewer main cast members = lower production costs.)

While it will be a few months before we find out whether or not this last-ditched effort was a success, one must admit that they would be surprised to see V return next year. Unlike many other series on television, V had its chance to shine – and with the second season, they were given a second chance.

Acknowledging that V will most likely not return, the producers were able to scrape together a somewhat appropriate conclusion to the overall series. With a twist ending similar to many favorite Twilight Zone episodes, viewers were left with a shocking revelation: humanity is doomed; the Vs have won.

Even though it may not be a popular result among the cult fanbase, the fact that a series – which convoluted their many sub-plots – had enough foresight to admit the inevitable has to be applauded. While these type of endings are often seen in many theatrical releases, the world of television has yet to embrace such honest, yet frustrating, storytelling.

Like BBC’s Life on Mars or Ashes to Ashes, the fate of the protagonist was inevitable. Despite spending hours championing their story, the sheer magnitude of the situation was too much to overcome. Of course, with any story told within the medium of television, there’s always one more chapter waiting to be told.

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daniel pruske4 years ago

Thankfully they killed the annoying son. That was the best part for me.

it wasn’t that intriguing to begin with..I grew up with the original series and the reason that had more of an interesting take was that it came out just as the cold war was attempting to end..at the time we had Red Dawn,The Day After and other cold war/end of the world flicks that preyed on our paranoia of being taken over..It just didn’t feel the same with this series being that even with post-9/11,the story didn’t reflect that same edge..it felt like a “what if aliens visited Gossip Girl by way of CSI: Miami”….the fact that it had actors from LOST and other sci-fi shows still didn’t help, especially when those actors seemed miscast…if it does go to season 3,they’d better bring a better writing staff and fix these shallow characters…even the bad guys were lame and that’s pretty bad.

Really? All those words and no mention of them proverbially “dropping the final shoe” so to speak by bringing Marc Singer back? Come on.

After seeing Jane Badler make the cast, I knew they were pulling out all the stops and trying to tie into the success of the original series in some manner. Marc Singer was the last possible card they could have played.

I’m now rooting for a season 3 just to see what they do with his character and this secret government agency.

As for this last season…….it was WAY too plodding to hold my attention.

i stopped watching 7 episodes ago. i didnt have the time to watch each time a completely stupid and badly executed sci fi drama. we deserve better. wish US TV producers would understand this, sometime along our linear future.

the actors were a good bunch (except for Tylor) – but the lines and script they were given, OH MY…. GOOD luck to anyone trying to make something decent out of it.

I long ago prepared myself for V to be cancelled. However, after watching the season finale last night I am hoping for a season 3. The storyline for Marc Singer looks quite interesting. I was just so glad he wasn’t given a token bit part…Sad to see Jane Badler go but that was inevitable. Tyler getting killed by Lisa #2 was priceless… Come on ABC renew it!!

Glad they killed Tyler. He singlehandedly led the series towards its downward spiral. The rest of the crappy writing seemed to follow his lead. Anna carried the entire series and thats a shame because it should have been better. About time they finally showed a full ‘V’ outside of their skin, but it did look kind of big and cheesy. How they hell do you explain a skin of hot Laura Vandervoort fitting over that big green dinosaur? Bring on Season 3 please – just so we can enjoy Ericka having to deal with her son’s death – maybe it’ll be her chance to actually show some emotion in her character – or in her acting!

I think this was the case of writers conceptualizing a great ending without paying much attention to the beginning or middle. As captivating as the finale was, the season as a whole was just a huge disappointment, and exhibited nothing short of laziness on the part of the writers. It seemed as though the writers attempted to prey on the perceived stupidity and/or sci-fi casualness of its viewers, by introducing inconsequential plot lines or through poorly executed scenes (I’ll never forgive them for killing the ex-husband the way they did–him dying from crossfire while he was on the ground and the guys who were shooting each other were up on building roofs).

Again, the ending was superb. The concept of the entire world being blissed, Lisa #2 being more of a bad-ass than Anna–given she is completely “untainted” by human emotion, and the world’s last remaining hope resting on a group of seemingly high resourced individuals gives strong reason for me to watch at least the first episode of season 3.

I just wish the writers dished out a complete season, rather than waiting till the very end to put out an amazing product.

Horrible ending to an uneven season. Why bring a character from the original series back just to have her spend 9 episodes in a dungeon? All the characters lose and the V’s have the upper hand? That’s a good season (series) finale? We lost? It was poorly executed and the characters and acting, as usual were very one note and wooden, especially every scene with Anna. Talking like a robot does not make a character interesting. This was a bad idea (like the Bionic Woman reboot)from the get go. A showrunner without much experience was another. He had no sense of Science Fiction, character relationships or coherent plots. Glad this one is pretty much gone.

I wanted Badler to stay since they could have had some sort of civil war between her followers and Anna’s. The Vs are like sheep, bowing to anyone who says I’m queen. Would have been more fun to have shown backbone in the creatures.

This was a good episode, would’ve been better if they had compressed this whole season into the first half and used this to end the first half on. Like a few others have said, it was a waste of Jane Badler to have her give three minute cameos from the dungeon. I was prepared for this to be the end but they did a good enough job of getting me to hope for a third season to see the fallout from all of this. Maybe a half season (13 episode) order would be better for the show.

I’ve never been a major fan of television shows until recently, but V provided an experience that I didn’t expect from a weekly show. Although sometimes the soul plotline was a bit erratic, it provided a storyline unique from most other alien shows and media, which are overly abundant in our generation. Providing a different take on alien invasions is something that’s difficult to do now and V has succeeded in many areas. I hope it returns, even though I do not know where they will go from here.

I was really prepared for this being the last season but this 2nd season finale, I felt, was great. After the boy was killed and the priest became blissed (I guess that’s the word for it ), all I could this was, “Oh man! Mankind is screwed!”. I see a lot of potential with the storyline now, especially after having Singer back. What would the offspring be like with the gaps in the DNA (what filled those gaps)? What will this Singer-led organization do? How will the protagonist’s actions differ now that her son is dead? What will happen to Anna’s original daughter? Is the father of the child that blissed the world dead? How will they get the priest back? I’m really looking forward to seeing what the writers can come up with.

really wanted to see diana face marc singer in person. if they can duplicate appearance with new skin, then any one can be brought back. a fake tyler, a fake president, a fake anna or the real diana…. the writers gave themselves a real escape point with the new skin on an alien being able to match another person.

The last episode of season 2, was probably the best. What gets me is that the networks call a season 10 or 12 episodes?? A season should be at least 20 episodes. BSG did the same thing, but Ron Moore was smart, 2.0,2.5 etc. Two seasons of V should be 1 season. The finale was great, if it was the last episode of season 1. What’s next, 5 episodes per season.

It takes a show 20 episodes to get it’s feet moving in the right direction. (season1). Not 12 or 10. Maybe they are having second thoughts about sticking with V vs Flash Forward???

Also was it just me or how did they fit the newborn V into the much smaller frame of Annas human skinned daughter.

Plus, half the people didn’t know when or if it was coming back?? Years ago, a season started around September, took a couple of weeks off for Christmas, New Years, Channaka, Kwanza, came back mid Jan and then ran until April May, not 6 month gaps between so called seasons. I had someone ask me 2 weeks ago when Flash Forward was coming back. Without sites like this, a good proportion of fans of these shows don’t know if or when they are coming back. If I didn’t read sites like screen rant and others, I wouldn’t know either. It’s not like everyone has a TV guide sitting on their coffee table.

There are just so many faults in this series, that I am surprised it got to a second season. I was REALLY wanting to love the show, and did watch every episode (at least, I don’t think I missed any.. it did hop around on our TV schedule here).

But the main characters were all so ridiculous, their individual plots were so badly handled, and their dialogs were ham-fisted.

“V” is just one of those shows that COULD have been a great idea, and WAS a great idea, but was handed to a bunch of hack writers who butchered it.

Great episode. But mini series shows like this and bad writing on top of it, made me give up on it. If a network only gives a show a few episodes a season, then its not worth investing time because they are going to be killing it off faster than that queen to be ripped Tyler’s neck out.

Every1 is allowed their own opinion but come on people and even the writer of this review Anthony Ocasio. I grew up on v back when Dianna was wearing the sexy german red uniform with the tweeked swastica, And Mike Donovan was gallavanting as a cameraman fighting with the resistence. When this new V aired I had my doubts cuz i was still thinking old V. But Now I cant miss a week of it. Season 2 has given us so much. The reapearance of Diana, New leader of the fith column, traitorus friends. So much was given and you ppl wanna trash it. Think bout this what will u have if its cancelled..Support this show! Tell ABC to keep it on the air

I agree with u wholeheartedly, I loved this series as I did the old “V”.I am no uppity television viewer that expects every show to be intellectually top notch..V was just fun to watch and thats all..I hope the ABC deciders give it another season. Those of us that enjoyed the show are not looking for Emmy winning status just a show that’s fun and entertains.

The new V was horrible from the start. It could have been good. It took too long to get to any of the excitement that the original had in the first 30 minutes. The “Bliss” was some of the worst story telling I have ever seen. The’human soul” plot line was just as bad. The acting was horrible. The stories went all over the place. It should be cancelled.

Tyler dead! YaY! Now all they have to do is kill off the girlfriend in “The Event!” I’m glad that kid got the long kiss goodnight! Ryan dead!?? Big Boooo! And I guess they didn’t like the orginal skin on his daughter so they changed it huh? LOL Did I already say “YAY!” for Tyler dying?? YAY!!!!

As a tremendous fan of “V”, both old and new, I was one of those who was really put off by some aspects of the second season. I know of other fans who dropped it altogether, but I had some significant motivation to stick with it, and in the end I’m glad I did. All of this “human souls” nonsense was absurd and outright painful – but it was mostly concentrated in the early half of the season. By mid-season we heard less and less about it, and so much the better. Other elements more than made up for this ridiculous aspect – we got fantastic character development, twisting and turning allegiances, and of course the intro of Diana (though in the end I was disappointed in her as well, and not nearly as sad to see her die as I thought I’d be).

The strength of this show was and is the characters and their interrelationships. The acting was fantastic, and most of the time we never entirely knew which side everyone was on. But in the end they all came through and remained true to themselves, for good or ill.

The season finale was probably the best I’ve ever seen on any series. I absolutely loved the conclusion – and while of course we all want our favorite series to be renewed, so we can spend more time with the characters we’ve grown to love, I personally wouldn’t be devastated if it ended right here on such a high note.

I absolutely love this show from the first episode on. There were constant surprises throughout seasons 1 and 2, it is fast paced and interesting to say the least. Finally a show that someone can enjoy especially when faced with all the garbage they’re putting on TV these days. I hope we get to see a third season. By the way I didn’t think the human soul aspect was ridiculous…just because we don’t understand something fully does not mean we trash it…isn’t that what sci-fi is all about?

Where they really blew it was waiting so long to bring in Marc Singer, he was V. And then when they did bring him in, he was a new character (Not Mike Donovan). Donovan should’ve been the leader of the secret government agency along with Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler). Making Diana a “good” V was an epic Fail, she should’ve been their supreme leader that Anna answered to. The writers blew it when they veered from the original characters. I think all that we can hope for is that they finish off V with a mini series. Originally Singer was to reprise his roll as Donovan in a new made for TV movie, that would’ve been so much better than what we were given.